» Flyboys: A True Story of Courage

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've ever read
Comment: This book is chilling and fascinating. It is one of the best books that I've ever read. It was so hard for me to put down (while on vacation) that I had to be told by my wife to leave it alone. I couldn't wait to get back to it after each time I closed its cover. The brutality of the pilots' circumstances is so sad and sadistic that it makes one wonder how Japan ever was allowed to become a member of the international community of nations. Man's inhumanity to man has no bounds. This is a fantastic read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII history, unless the reader is of Japanese descent. I'm proud of my Swiss heritage. If I were of Japanese heritage, I'd feel a sense of shame.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Turbulence ahead
Comment: James Bradley's "Flyboys" is a carefully researched account of the US air campaign in the Pacific during WWII. In particular, Bradley focuses on the lives of a handful of American pilots. The author finds patterns in what motivated these men to seek out the dangers of flying, how they shared common traits with their Japanese enemies, and how their families came to terms with the sacrifices brought about by the war. Bradley does a good job of humanizing the events. He interviews surviving friends and family members, and goes to great lengths to shed some light on the Japanese perspective.

Much of the tension in the book centers around Chichi Jima, a small island controlled by the Japanese during much of the war. It was here that several American flyboys were shot down and captured by the Japanese military. You may want to flip through the pages a little more quickly than usual when Bradley describes the fates that befell those men at the hands of their captors.

The author works double duty in arguing that the Japanese aren't alone in harboring guilt for atrocities against humanity. Surely, it's a fair point. But some of the parallels that he draws feel like he was trying just a little too hard to get this message across. Writing a couple of chapters that stretch across the centuries in order to find examples of gruesome US acts adds slim value to what is otherwise a very thoughtful and illuminating book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Compelling Story, but a Little Too Much PC Rambling
Comment: The true story of the flyboys shot down over Chichi Jima is extremely compelling. Thanks to the author for his research and work in presenting the story. The portion of the book which deals with their specific story is very good. Unfortunately, it seemed like much of the other content detracted from their story. I understand that it helps to put their story in context, but it just seemed to ramble on with picking and choosing certain aspects of the Pacific War.

Also, what does the history of American mistreatment of Indians have to do with flyboys shot down over Chichi Jima? Nothing, unless you're trying to make a politically correct point about moral equivalency. War is bad and both sides do bad things--I get it. The problem with this book is that the author went out of his way to keep making the same point that the Japanese did bad things and the Americans did bad things. This just seemed like a way to excuse the horrific treatment of the flyboy POWs. It was a distraction from their story too.

Overall, a compelling story, but it could have been much better.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Throw it Back....
Comment: I never got to the "Fly Boys" part of the book about the true courage of WWII fliers in the Pacific who paid the ultimate price. The first 100 pages of supposed historical prelude turned out to be nothing more than an overt rejection of Western culture in general and Christianity in particular, intertwined with a coarsely written characterization and single sided judgment of American progress and greatness. In a time when it has become fashionable to stick our country in the eye, this is a crassly opportunistic book that primarily underwrites author Bradley's twisted version of world history at the expense of American heroes. If you feel compelled to read this unscholarly account of the Fly Boys, cut out chapters 1-6 first. Given that suspect lead in, what follows may or may not be all true.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Stuck on stupid
Comment: This book is good only for throwing across the room. Why this is so has already been explained by most one-star reviewers. I will stay away from anything written by James Bradley for as long as I live.

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